15th National Convention of the Farmers Movement held

The National Federation of Farmers Movement (Nominren) held its 15th National Convention January 14-16 in Tokyo to discuss the action plan for this year.

In the opening address, Nominren President Sasaki Kenzo called for the Farmers Movement's cooperation with consumers in the effort to secure safe and domestically-grown products and protect Japanese agriculture from the "Koizumi reform" which is aimed at destroying the nation's rice paddies and farmland.

The Nominren secretary general in the keynote report pointed out that Koizumi's agricultural policy leaves the nation's staple crop and farm produce subject to market forces, abandons the government's responsibility to ensure a stable food supply, destroys farmland and farmers' cooperatives, and allows big businesses to dominate the country's farm industry.

Expressing their uneasiness about the "Koizumi reform," many municipal mayors, farmers' guild chairs, and consumers are now looking to Nominren, said the secretary.

Speaking on behalf of the Japanese Communist Party, JCP Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi stated that the more the Koizumi Cabinet continues with the destructive agricultural policy, the more cooperation between farmers and the people emerges to dig away the Liberal Democratic Party's conventional support bases.

Ichida commended the Nominren movement's role in checking mad-cow disease (BSE) and forcing the government to ensure that imported farm products are safe.

Noting that the year 2003 is a year of elections that will set the stage for blocking the "Koizumi reform," he promised that the JCP will join forces with more farmers and other people to envisage a hopeful future of Japan. (end)